The Love We Keep

Good book. I will say straight off that this is one that you should read the first two books in the series before reading this book. Those two books give the backstories that you really need to understand the relationships in this one.

Zack is a fisherman on Lake Michigan. He is on the water for weeks or months at a time. He is very much a loner who gets antsy when he’s been onshore for too long. In the first book, The One Who Stays, he and innkeeper Meg have been an item for several years. He comes and goes, and she is okay with that – until she isn’t. She wants a commitment, and he can’t – or won’t – give her one, so she ends their relationship. Zack is clueless and goes into a deep funk over their breakup. He island-bound during the winter, which makes him even grumpier. The last straw is when his Aunt Dahlia abandons the island (and him) for the winter.

Suzanne is Summer Island’s florist. She came to the island several years earlier, trying to escape the grief of losing her husband. She has been adamant that she had her one chance at love and wasn’t interested in trying again. But in the second book, The Giving Heart, Suzanne meets a man who shows a great deal of interest in getting to know her better. But she allows her fears to push him away, and by the time she has overcome those fears, he has fallen in love with someone else. When this book starts, she too is in a funk, trying hard not to resent the other couple’s happiness and not having much success at it.

Summer Island is one of those places that becomes very isolated in the winter. When the lake freezes, the ferry doesn’t run until the spring thaw. The only way on or off the island is by helicopter. Dahlia is on the last ferry off the island, which creates a big problem when Zack slips on icy stairs and seriously injures himself. Meg isn’t comfortable being the one to care for him, especially now that she is in a new relationship. Out of their group, that leaves Suzanne to pick up the slack. It is awkward because Suzanne has made no secret of her disapproval of Zack and the way he treated Meg. However, as a former nurse, she can’t just walk away, especially when the injury leaves Zack with a paralyzed right leg.

I enjoyed seeing the development of the relationship between Suzanne and Zack. Things get off to a rough start. Zack is depressed because his injury likely means the end of his fishing career, and he has no idea what else he would do. Suzanne isn’t happy about caring for the surly fisherman but feels she owes it to her friends, Meg and Dahlia. Zack is a real pain until Suzanne lays down the law to him. She understands why he’s down, but she’s not going to let him lay around like a lump all winter. Somehow she manages to convince him to let her work a little physical therapy on him. At the same time, being stuck together in the same house day in and day out, the antagonism between them begins to fade.

I liked seeing Zack and Suzanne get to know each other. It was fun to see them start to relax enough to tease each other over music and movies. I also enjoyed seeing how Suzanne worked to motivate Zack to give the PT a chance. There were a few rough patches, especially when Zack’s fears about his future would overwhelm him, but Suzanne usually found a way to pull him out of it. What neither expected were the sparks of attraction that flared between them.

Suzanne was horrified at first. Getting involved with her best friend’s ex felt utterly wrong, but she couldn’t deny the way he made her feel. Zack was simply flabbergasted to discover that being around Suzanne helped ease his fears about his future. While any thoughts of settling down with Meg used to send him running for his boat, the idea of staying with Suzanne was curiously appealing. I hurt for them both when Suzanne’s fears of what the future might hold made her push Zack away. It took an emotionally devastating event and advice from her friend Dahlia for her to realize that she wanted to keep their love. Zack also had a startling epiphany the first time he went back out on his boat. I loved that it was Suzanne that felt like home, not his boat. His big moment on the street of the town was sweet and romantic and entirely unlike him.

There was also a secondary story going on with Dahlia. Her departure from the island and refusal to come back when her nephew was injured was very out of character. Zack always seemed to be the center of her life, and to abandon him now felt off. It was hard for Zack, Suzanne, and Meg to understand it. The glimpses into her past gave a better understanding of her actions. There was an emotional twist in her story that I didn’t see coming until just before the big reveal.

Icy steps lead to Happily Ever After – a deeply emotional and poignant finish to Toni Blake’s Summer Island series.

Suzanne Quinlan is a relative newcomer to Summer Island. She hasn’t experienced very many isolated winters there yet. Summer Island is a well-loved tourist location until winter turns the island into an isolated location with the ferry from the mainland unable to run back and forth. Many shop owners close their shops for the icy cold duration. Suzanne owns the florist shop, Petal Pushers and joins her fellow shop owners in this winter hiatus. This leaves Suzanne with plenty of time on her hands.

Zack Sheppard is a fisherman who is away from Summer Island most of the time from April to November. He returns for the winter and holes up in his apartment above his aunt’s cafe, Dahlia’s Cafe. He has spent the last six months in a funk since his breakup with Meg Sloan because he wasn’t able to make a commitment.

Present day. Suzanne and Meg have had a wee bit of a falling out. Their friendship is a little shaky. Dahlia Delany, the third friend in Suzanne’s circle, has just left the island to winter in the warmth of the south, somewhere with sunshine and sandy beaches. Then it happens. Zack decides to make a trip to the grocery store, hits a patch of ice on the steps from his second floor apartment and falls down the steps. Somehow he finds that he can’t get up so he just lays there on the cold, snowy ground. Meg Sloan steps out of her inn and sees him so she rushes over to help. Even with her help Zack can’t get up. Meg calls for help to transport him to the local doctor’s office and then calls Suzanne to meet her at the doctor’s office. The end result is the only place for Zack to recuperate with twenty-four hour oversight is Suzanne’s home. And so it begins…

The Love We Keep by Toni Blake is the third book in her Summer Island series. This story is filled with poignacy, emotional upheaval and some difficult revelations and outcomes. Toni Blake does an excellent job of telling this story with just the right amount of humor and seriousness. The two main characters, Suzanne and Zack were introduced in the previous books in the series. Getting to know them better in this book explains much about their previous actions. I love how this author had Suzanne and Zack explore their pasts and work together to move on to a better future. This book is a compelling small-town romance that will make you laugh and cry.